Political agenda

We believe in the need for a low-carbon economy. It offers many opportunities for our business and for our customers. With the GoGreen program, we are already doing our part to make this happen. To encourage CO₂ efficiency improvement ambitions in our industry and in other sectors, we believe that a comprehensive political agenda is needed as a global framework.

In the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen in December 2009, we announced our Group’s public policy positions in four areas on a global level. Even though the COP15 results did not meet the expectation of a global agreement to reduce man-made greenhouse gas emissions, we maintain our GoGreen ambitions and continue to ask political leaders to support a related framework for climate protection, as outlined below.

Complete the single market for transport and reduce its complexity

We support the EU’s activities to complete the European market for all modes of transport as we believe that it would enable a seamless and more sustainable cross-border transport flow. For aviation, the “Single European Sky II”, has the potential to reduce by up to 12 % CO₂ emissions per flight thanks to a more efficient air traffic management. That’s why we are asking to speed up its implementation.

To improve efficiency of road transport, free access to the international transport market and the admission of non-resident transport firms into the national transport market of member countries is needed. Currently over 30 % of trucks operate empty in the EU. We ask the EU to liberalize road cabotage in order to reduce a part of these empty run trucks. This will reduce congestion and bring environmental and economic benefits.

At AEL’s European Logistics Summit 2009, Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL, challenged the current rail capacities in Europe. A lack of long-distance efficient and reliable connections hinders our ambition to shift more goods to rail. To make this transport mode attractive to customers, we see the clear need to enforce the liberalization of cross-border rail freight and increase the efficiency of infrastructure.

Tackle congestion at its real source

Even though an average of 90 % of congestion is caused by passenger cars, the EU seeks to regulate only trucks with road charges by adopting the EuroVignette III-Directive. We ask for a non-discriminatory and efficient approach to tackle the environmental problems of road transport. Congestion should be tackled at its main source or, if trucks will be priced regulated, the EU has to get rid of night-driving bans first. Otherwise there will be no chance of reducing truck runs during the congested time zones. Revenues of a charging system should be reinvested into the European road infrastructure. In cities, solutions for more sustainable and efficient urban logistics should be identified in cooperation with all actors of the supply chain, but especially transport operators and retailers.

Incentives and research for ITS

ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) use information and communication technologies to tackle problems caused by traffic congestion. The EU targets market penetration of ITS applications and services to contribute to a cleaner, safer and more efficient transport system in Europe. We ask to incentivize respective applications and to support research for solutions which will lead to solutions and products which will be affordable for industry. National and EU financial incentives should be created in order to secure rapid deployment of ITS technologies and greener vehicles in the road transport industry.

We, together with the industry representatives of the AEL, ask the EU Commission to set-up a high level logistics stakeholders group and the European Parliament to establish a cross-committee think tank for logistics. This is an important step to shape policy-making which will identify efficient and more suitable solutions for the logistics industry.